1981 Camaro Z28

[DynoDave]

That's very nice. Looks like it was meant to be there.

[MP81]

Thanks! I am very happy with the piece - really well made, and a pretty easy install, too.

Far superior to torsion springs or a broom handle.

I did end up ordering a 13 ft roll of butyl for the driver-side vapor barrier, as well as the full clip/hardware pack for the doors, since I just really would like to get them back on. So I end up with a bunch of extra clips, oh well, not the worst thing.

So once I get those, I can finally consider my inner felts "installed", though now it looks like I may have some tweaking to do on the door weatherstripping...it's always a gamble when it comes to non-OEM weatherstripping. The Metro stuff is usually pretty good - and doesn't cost an absolute fortune like OEM NOS weatherstripping does - but you do run into some issues. I mean, I installed the things two summers ago and I still have to body slam the doors to close them all the way. What I've noticed this time is right at the front top corner of the door - the outer felt should lay over the "knob" at the top of the weatherstrip, and be even with the rest of that felt...but the "knob" sits up too high and makes the felt push out.

So I may have to...modify that...

[MP81]

Yeah, I think I'm going to have to cut down the weatherstripping or something...I went to install the RH door panel today and the felt wouldn't even touch the window, because it won't sit correctly far enough down/outboard in the window channel due to these gigantic knobs. I have to compare to the pics I took of the old weatherstripping (while in pretty bad shape, it should at least give me an idea of where the weatherstrip should be in relation to the door and the door panel), but I think the bottom of these knobs are what I need to shave down in order to get them to sit further down and not push everything up/in.

Ugh...the problems of reproduction weatherstripping. At the very least, the door seals are one of the easier ones to replace, but NOS ones cost over $200, so, I'd rather do what I can to make these ones work, given I did spend money on them.

[MP81]

I ordered new door seals last night - this time by Fairchild. Supposedly, these ones fit a good bit better than the Metro ones. I guess we'll see if that's the case. Thankfully, out of everything, the door seals are the easiest to replace - and the only ones on the car (aside from maybe cowl to hood seals) that actually have alignment pins. Since I replaced them a few years back, it shouldn't be a fight against remnants of nasty, old, dry-rotted weatherstrip and nasty, old, gross adhesive - as I already dealt with that. RockAuto shipped about 2.5 hours after I made my order, so I should have them sometime next week. If they fit as I'm hoping they do, the doors should close significantly easier as well.

Yesterday I (finally) completed getting the trunk seal channel cleaned out - at least of big particles/strips that would cause the new seal to sit improperly. I just need to take some goo-gone to the channel to make sure I get rid of anything else, because I take some rubbing alcohol to it to make sure it's fresh and clean...all after vacuuming out the channel, and the trunk, of course - this shit's everywhere.

I should be able to get by with the trunk as-is for a few days (hoping to have the car back together and driveable before next weekend - which probably means I should actually put insurance on this, and the Cobalt, as well), but I'm going to need to order a small kit of Bondo, and hopefully I can find a can of the matching Maroon paint, as I really need to clean up the rust on the underside of the trunk, right where it seals to the trunk weatherstrip, as ideally that should be smooth. It's fairly bad, but with the patina on the trunk, I'm not interested in changing out the trunk, nor do I really care what it looks like underneath - as long as I stop the rust and have a smooth surface. If I decide to go another route, visually, then I'll likely get another trunk lid.

[DynoDave]

By reputation, in the 3rd gen world, the Fairchild strips are very well thought of. I hope you have good luck with them.

[MP81]

I hope so too - I'd really like to get these door panels out of the inside of my house.

[MP81]

I started the car yesterday after dry-fitting the trunk weatherstrip, just since I hadn't in about two or three months. Since it was hot, it got up to temp pretty quick. Shut it off...and it tried to keep running. Ugh, dammit.

I've never been able to get a dwell reading off the diagnostic connector, so I have bought the fantastically-80's-high-tech OTC Monitor 2000 that can read the MCS dwell (as well as the TPS position, and read codes) through the ALDL port the car has. I'm hoping that gets me somewhere with this carb.

Once I have the trunk weatherstrip installed, and hopefully the door seals soon thereafter, I'll finally be able to at least take it out for a drive for the first time since September.

[MP81]

All right, went out there and plugged in this fantastic bit of futuristic technology and hot damn is this easier than most other ways of doing it.

The Monitor 2000 agrees with the dwell meter in that 3 degree reading for MCS Dwell. The Monitor 2000 also confirmed that the car goes into closed loop normally and stays in closed loop - also good for diagnosing things. If I revved it up a good bit, the M2000 would switch to Rich, and dwell would drop to 2, before going back to 3.

I just happened to test the TPS voltage...and unless I'm reading the screen wrong...it's saying something like 3.9-4.0X Volts at about 1000-1200 RPM (the car decided it was going to idle up there, with revs slow to drop - always been an issue with this thing)...spec is 0.56V at curb idle (which should be set to around 750 RPM, in the times I've had the car idle successfully where it's supposed to, so I set it then)...no way it goes up 3.5V in 300 RPM, since it maxes out at about 5V at WOT...

Confirmed that the coolant temp sensor is reading exactly the same as my cluster's sender, so that's good. I also checked trouble codes and bam, code 21: Throttle position high.

If the TPS is reading stupid high, could this be causing a lot of my issues? If the TPS thinks its near WOT, it's going to be putting in a lot more fuel than it should be, no? The RPM readout off the distributor, read on the M2000 was correct.

[DynoDave]

There's a throw back. We had one much like this under the Miller name that a current FCA employee and grad of the same auto program I tool brought down with him. We got to p[lay with it on his company Shadow with Turbo 1 engine. A neat little device. Had a feature that you could select and it would go through all of the circuits underhood, cycling the item and / or it's control replay. Sort of a quick circuit test to demonstrate that the ECM could command these things on, the circuit was good, and the device controlled was responsive. Not a definitive test, but still pretty darned cool in 1986.

For sure...the ECM is relying on that TPS input...sounds like a perfect place to start, and good that you could confirm other things too!

Edit: There's a step in here that talks about lubing the TPS plunger (this is NOT like a modern TPS) to prevent sticking. You might check for that condition first before replacement.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/ccrp...retor-rebuild/

[MP81]

Looks like they coated the entire body of the TPS - something I did not do. I recall it being able to move without sticking, but that was also something I did almost a year ago now, so I don't entirely remember.

If I could get the roll pin out of the accelerator pump lever up top, then I might be able to test from the top, but that gave me tremendous trouble as it basically started to split into an inner and outer part, or something odd like that. I ended up basically having to pivot the air horn off, still attached to the side linkage and then flip it over and rotate it off it.

If I can't adjust the TPS down enough, then I'll be revisiting that, as I should be able to pull the air horn off with the carb on the vehicle.

[MP81]

Pics from last week related to the trunk weatherstrip:

Trunk channel cleared out:


New Metro seal installed - might need some adhesive in a couple areas to sit properly, but otherwise much better.

[DynoDave]

Looks good!

[MP81]

Thanks! I pulled three of the corners out yesterday, put some adhesive to hold them down in the outboard edges (you can see how the nearest corner does not sit down against the outer edge like it should) and then taped them down to keep/pull them into place.

I also ordered a tool to adjust the TPS screw, because I definitely do not have anything that works...because it is a 2.5mm hex head bolt. It's freaking tiny. I could have spent $30 on the Thexton tool that does all the adjustments on the carb, or I could buy a 2.5mm Nutdriver for under $10. It's basically made for taking apart certain iPhones and model trains/RC cars.

[MP81]

Decided to take a look at the door seals and how they compared to the new Fairchild pieces. Started on the left door, since that's the easiest to get to, and the first one I grabbed was the right-hand side one, so I grabbed the other side's door seal.

Which was also a right-hand side one.

Son of a *****.

[DynoDave]

Doh!